Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in Final Fantasy VII or anything really. That joy belongs to Square-Enix. Someday I will own a Reno plushie to hug, though. Squeeee!

Chapter Four

Mission

Reno dug his teeth into his lip ring, not quite suppressing a wild grin of excitement. Finally! He was finally allowed to go on an actual Turk mission. Up until now, all he'd been allowed to do was guard Rufus, which, while not a bad way to spend his time, didn't really measure up to the prospect of being able to run around and whack people with his EMR without fear of a reprimand from his boss. He walked from Rufus' office after briefing down to the lounge or whatever the hell it was called, whistling happily. Shinra executives and soldiers watched him walk past with trepidation and shock. "What's got him so happy?" a sergeant whom Reno had sworn at a couple of hours before asked Rufus' secretary. "Just got clearance for his first official mission as a Turk," she explained. Nothing more really needed to be said.

Reno was off to kill things in the morning.

…

It was a heinously early hour that the redhead awoke the next morning. He clubbed his alarm clock with his EMR, rolled over and nearly went back to sleep again. The phone rang just as he started to drift off again. He swore and staggered out of bed, groping along in the dark towards the kitchen. He grabbed the phone, and snarled "What?" into the receiver.

"Good morning, Reno," came Tseng's calm voice, not the least put out by the teenager's surliness. "Go have a shower and eat something. Try to wake up a little. Be at Shinra offices by five." Reno hung up.

"Fuck you," he said to the silent phone. Then he flipped the light switch, swore violently at the blinding flare of yellow light and stumbled off to have that shower.

…

He managed to get to Shinra offices ten minutes early. Tseng stared at him. "Reno… you're actually early. Are you feeling well?"

"Ha bloody ha," was Reno's snide reply. He yawned and rubbed at his bloodshot eyes. "When are we leaving?" They were going to an abandoned laboratory somewhere in the middle of nowhere to ensure that all the failed experiments had died when the place had been gassed.

"Since you're here," Tseng said, moving off up the marble lobby stairs towards the elevators. "Now, I suppose." Reno followed along on the older man's heels, for once bypassing his habitual antagonism in the delighted anticipation of hurting something big time. He was smiling happily as he passed several Shinra grunts, and he didn't notice it, but at least four of them crossed themselves at the murderous glee in his eyes.

Reno climbed in the waiting Shinra helicopter. This one wasn't Rufus' luxury chopper, it was a military style one, fully weapon equipped. Reno curled up in the passenger seat in the cockpit, knees up to his chest, humming random songs happily. Tseng picked up a pair of goggles from the 'copter dashboard and threw them at him. "Put those on," he ordered.

Reno blinked. "Um, why?"

Tseng rolled his eyes and started up the engine. The rotor blades began to turn. "I didn't mean on your eyes, idiot, although if you want to do that I'm not arguing. I just meant stick them on to keep your hair out of your eyes. You don't want to be blinded at a crucial moment in there."

Reno blinked again. "And for the purpose of keeping my hair out of my eyes, you give me goggles?"

"The alternative is hairclips."

Reno put the goggles on.

…

The helicopter ride was mostly silent. Reno asked questions occasionally, most of them variants on "Are we there yet?" He didn't do it because he was particularly interested, he liked flying enough to not be bored, he just liked watching how Tseng clenched his teeth and swore every time he asked. After Tseng threatened to throw him out of the helicopter, he resorted to singing loud obnoxious songs and watching Tseng's complexion change colour. When he decided it wasn't safe to bug his superior any longer, he stared out the window, watching with fascination as Midgar's desert-y surroundings changed to a lush rainforest. He'd never seen so much green in one place in his life. It was amazing for the Midgar Slums boy who'd grown up under the Plate.

Soon, an unnatural looking clearing in the forest came into view. Tseng easily parked the 'copter on a concrete helipad at the centre of the clearing, and undid his seat belt, opening the door and letting in the oppressive rainforest heat. "Come along, Reno," he said, checking the clip on his handgun. "We have work to do."

Reno jumped out of the helicopter, and felt his heavy steel capped boots crush some small, furry and, above all else, squishy… thing as he landed. This was not a good start. He looked at it, smeared on the pavement.. Whatever it had been, it was pretty unidentifiable now, being just a mangled excuse for a creature with bugged out eyes and a perplexed expression on it's mildly flat face. Reno blinked a couple of times, then shrugged. Okay, so he just squished a small animal. Moving on. He walked around the helicopter, absently scraping his boots off on the concrete as he did. Small bits of random-squishy-animal still insisted upon clinging to his feet, making him roll his eyes and swear softly. Just what he needed – fragrant animal gut attached to his footwear. Determinedly putting it from his mind, he pulled out his EMR and looked at Tseng. "Where are we going?"

Tseng just pointed to a pair of steel doors set into the ground, which was nearly completely grown over with grass and vines. Reno hadn't even noticed it. "Get the shrubbery away from that," he ordered. "Then we can get started." Reno rolled his eyes, but ripped the vines away, glancing back at Tseng after he'd done so. Tseng threw an earpiece thing at him. "Put that in and don't take it out again until we've finished here and are in the helicopter on the way home. Understood?"

Reno just nodded, putting the earpiece in. The two Turks stood on either side of the doors, grabbed a handle each and pulled them quickly open, making sure they were completely out of sight as they did so. Nothing huge or furry leapt out to disembowel them. Instead, a small furry critter, much like the one Reno had stepped on, blinked in the sudden and totally unexpected light, obviously traumatised, and then scuttled off down the stairs that led away from the open doors. "I stepped on one of those things," Reno said randomly. Tseng just gave him a look that spoke volumes about his general inanity and walked off down into the dark, moving close to the wall with his gun at the ready. Reno rolled his eyes and followed, priming his EMR as he did so, and flicking it up to level five: excruciating but not fatal for human sized creatures.

…

Down they went, into the dark, senses on full alert, looking around for anything out of the ordinary. There were a lot of the small scuttling furry creatures. Reno tried desperately to ignore them. He couldn't afford to be unprofessional at this stage. The stairs came to an end and they were standing in what appearing to be a large storage depot, full of crates and barrels. Suddenly, there was a high pitched shriek and something came flying out of the darkness towards Reno. He was thrown backwards and skidded across the floor, slamming into a big wooden box. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!" he snarled, managing to roll sideways before the thing which had knocked him managed to take a swipe at him. As it was, its large clawed paw ended up embedded in the box instead of his head. Reno looked up into crazed, bloodthirsty yellow eyes, and tightened his hold on his EMR. He jabbed the monster in the ribs with the electric baton, sending a current of power coursing through its body.

The thing convulsed once and then fell still, blood running from its mouth, its furious yellow eyes open and staring. It also collapsed on top of Reno, half crushing him and driving the breath from his lungs. He tried to swear, but found he didn't have enough oxygen to do that, and tried to roll the black furred monster off him. It was too heavy. A moment later, he felt someone else shoving at the thing, and shortly after, Reno was free. He sat up, gasping, painfully trying to fill his lungs with air. Ow, ow, ow. Tseng grabbed his shoulder, helping him stay upright as he slowly steadied his breathing.

"What the fuck was that!?" he howled as soon as he could manage it. He looked sideways at the dead beast. It was about two and a half metres long, with plush, velvety blue-black fur. It appeared to be a strange combination of panther and dog, with a slender but muscled build more along the lines of cat than dog, resembling that of a cheetah. Its head was dog shaped with a long muzzle, large ears and a strange sort of crest almost like a tail connected to the back of its neck. But its eyes were definitely feline, big and yellow with the typical slit pupils. It had retractable claws, fangs that were slender like a cat's but very strong like a dog's and, evidently, not much of a tolerance for electricity.

"I assume it is one of the experiments," Tseng said quietly. "Are you hurt?"

Reno stood up, gingerly testing his body. "Don't think so…" He winced as bruises, aches and pains made themselves known. "Not too badly anyway. A few bruises, is all." He rubbed his left shoulder to ease up the ache in it, (it was the part of him that has first connected with the wooden crate) and scowled as he saw Tseng walking away, apparently uninterested now that he was sure that Reno hadn't been seriously damaged. He jogged to catch up, leaving the corpse where it was. About then, a pitiful mewing caught his ear. Huh?

He turned, his eyes running over the room, searching for the source of the sound. His gaze fell upon a small darkened recess between a pair of crates, roofed by yet another wooden box. He crossed the floor gingerly, EMR at the ready, not wanting to be caught out once again by some big, nasty, sharp toothed monster. "Reno," Tseng called behind him. "Come on."

"Just a minute," Reno called back, moving carefully closer to the opening. Things happened very quickly after that.

With a roar, another one of the creatures erupted from the opening. Tseng, edgy enough to begin with, whipped his gun up, and had four bullets in the thing before it even got anywhere near to where Reno had been. Reno ducked to one side, letting the claws pass him by, then brought his EMR down in a quick arc, zapping the thing. It convulsed, then collapsed just like the first one had. Reno prodded it with a booted foot, just to check it was dead. When he was convinced it wasn't going to spring to life and try to rip his head off, he checked inside the crate-formed little cave for the thing which had mewed.

Bright blue eyes stared back at him. The baby monster gave him a curious look, and mewed. It sat up, and toddled over to look at Reno with enquiring eyes. It was only about a foot long, with the beginnings of the crest its parents had had at the base of their necks. It still had the blue eyes of a very young. It squeaked again. Then it walked past him towards its parent, and butted the big cat/dog side with a little head, obviously expecting it to get up and feed it. It was about then that Reno started to feel very guilty.

"What the hell do we do with it?" he asked Tseng, sounding confused and defensive. Tseng gave him an amused look. Reno was suddenly looking and acting like the teenager he was. "What do you think?" he said, reloading his gun. Reno stared at him, a look of almost comic horror on his face. "You can't just shoot it!" he yelped, reaching forward and picking the thing up. It actually purring and curled up against his chest. With its mother/father non-responsive it must have wanted some love. Tseng lifted an eyebrow. "Yes, I can. Put it down." He gestured with the gun.

"No fucking way!" Reno said as the thing cuddled up under his chin and purred some more. "It's just a baby!"

"A baby which will grow up into one of those things," Tseng retorted, pointing at the dead monster. "We were ordered to eliminate the abandoned experiments, not just spare them because they look adorable. Really, Reno, I wouldn't have picked you to be soft hearted."

"I FUCKING AM NOT!!" Reno snarled. "I just don't like the idea of killing a helpless animal, okay?"

"You have no problems killing helpless humans," Tseng countered. He was starting to change his mind, though. Reno didn't look like he was going to change his, and they had work to do.

"No human is entirely helpless," Reno said, absentmindedly patting the small creature's fuzzy fur. "This thing's only a few weeks old." The kitten/puppy thing kept purring. Somehow seeming to know that Reno was arguing for its continued existence, it also started to lick his chin with a dog-like tongue. He just managed to suppress a giggle. Tseng sighed as he stared at the pair in front of him. Reno acting childish in the middle of a very dangerous complex probably full of very dangerous things. This was all he needed. "Reno…" he began, with full intentions of telling the redhead to get rid of the thing. Two pairs of pleading eyes, one set bluey green with mako-glow, the other bright baby-cat blue, fixed on his face. Not even Tseng was enough to stand up to a double-whammy of puppy-dog eyes. "Fine," he said testily, turning around and stalking off. "You can keep the damn thing. But if you get killed because you're too busy protecting it, don't come whining to me."

Reno's teeth flashed in a wide grin as he silently tucked the small creature into the front of his jacket, actually doing up the suit buttons for once to hold it in place. It gave him a considering look, then hooked its claws into his shirt and went to sleep, a little bundle under his clothes. A world of awwww!!

…

About an hour later, the kitten/puppy was bounding along at Reno's heels instead. Tseng typed a code into a access keypad, and the large metal door it controlled slid open. The two (or, well, three) of them walked inside, the door closing behind them with a thud. Reno figured this was the main control room, judging from the amount of complex looking computers there were. It had a few leafy invaders, though – vines had somehow forced their way through a rusty patch in the wall, spilling over and coiling through several of the control panels, destroying them completely. Tseng clicked his tongue with annoyance and walked over to one of them, sitting down on the surprisingly intact desk chair before it. "Keep watch," he ordered Reno as he somehow powered the computer up and started typing in passwords.

Reno rolled his eyes at his senior's officious tone, and grinned as the kitten/puppy bounded up into Tseng's lap, turned around once, then curled up, falling asleep. Tseng didn't even look at it, he just kept working. Reno rolled his eyes yet again, and went back to looking around. He moved a few steps away, staring into the shadows. "What're we gonna do after this? Run around shooting things?"

"No… I have no intention of exploring this entire place. We could be here for weeks," Tseng replied, actually twisting around so he could see Reno's expression change when he heard the next bit. "You get to blow this place sky high."

He was rewarded with a grin that was equal parts eager insanity and childish delight.

…

Reno's nose was pressed up against the glass of the helicopter window. Next to him was the little kitten/puppy, her paws (for she was a girl) resting on the window sill as she looked in the same direction as Reno, wondering what the redhead was so worked up about. She observed that the human was counting down to something in a breathy whisper and was curious. "…eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two…"

A huge blast shook the helicopter, and a giant ball of red, orange and gold fire mushroomed into the sky, followed by the inevitable black smoke cloud. Half the forest caught on fire, but Reno didn't notice. He was still in a world of happy explosives. The kitten/puppy curled up beneath the seat and put her paws over her eyes. She wasn't sure she loved the redhead so much anymore.

…

"Reno…" Rufus' voice was at its icy best. "What the hell is this?"

"Not entirely sure, sir," Reno said brightly. "But it's yours, anyway."

Rufus glared at him, then glared at the ball of dark fur curled up in his lap. Reno had just walked in and plunked the thing on him, getting dark fur all over his suit. He did not appreciate it. "I don't want it," he said flatly. "Get rid of it."

Reno gave him a pleading look. "I can't, sir. My landlord won't let me keep her and Tseng keeps saying that I should shoot her, so I can't offer her to him. And I can't just dump her." Reno looked… distressed. Rufus was surprised to see him worked up over something so trivial. He hadn't even sworn once yet, which was a definite indication of how serious he was. At the worried look in the other's eyes, he felt his resolve crumbling. It didn't help that the kitten/puppy uncoiled itself from where it had been sitting in his lap and stared up at him with big blue eyes. It batted at his cheek with one very soft paw. "Stop that," Rufus said automatically, pushing the paw away. The little thing was not deterred, though, and she just stood up on her hind legs with her forepaws braced against Rufus' chest for balance and started to lick him on the cheek, purring.

Rufus' frustrated blue eyes met Reno's amused ones in a hard look. "I don't want it," he repeated. "Take it away." Reno actually shook his head. Rufus stared at him, the beginnings of fury in his eyes. Reno flinched, wondering if he had gone to far. He took a few quick steps forward, ending up leaning over Rufus' chair, only about a foot away from him. "Look," he said desperately. "She likes you, okay? And even though you say you don't I know you like her. So could you just let her stay for a while?"

"You sound like you're talking about a human girl," Rufus complained, feeling edgy at Reno's closeness. Reno grinned and Rufus' heart skipped a beat. "Please?" Reno wheedled. "You have heaps of servants and whatever at this place. You could just hire somebody to look after her for you. You could afford it. Please?" Rufus glared at him, then sighed, defeated.

"I suppose I could have her trained to be a guard dog… cat… whatever…" he muttered. He was completely taken by surprise by Reno's response. "FUCK YEAH!!" the redhead shouted, randomly hugging his quickly, then dashing out the door, yelling thanks over his shoulder. Rufus stared after him, feeling all tingly. He glanced down at the kitten in his lap. "Did you understand that? No? Oh, well." He picked the small cat up and stared at her critically. "I shall call you Dark Nation."

A/N: Well… That felt strangely rushed. Did anyone other than me notice that? Oh well, thanks to everyone who has reviewed. Have a cookie. As for the rest of you… STOP BEING SO DAMN LAZY!!!!!!!!!